


Flippant - Senior Troubles

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1317]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 07:43:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19884073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Tony goes on "vacation". Well really he's trying to help Senior, but can he?





	Flippant - Senior Troubles

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 12/08/2002 for the word [flippant](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/12/08/flippant).
> 
> flippant[ flip-uhnt ]  
> adjective  
> frivolously disrespectful, shallow, or lacking in seriousness; characterized by levity:  
> The audience was shocked by his flippant remarks about patriotism.  
> Chiefly Dialect. nimble, limber, or pliant.  
> Archaic. glib; voluble.
> 
> This is for prompt #2 of the January 2019 Five Prompts Challenge located [here](https://ncis-discuss.livejournal.com/183897.html), which featured a lovely picture by rose_malmaison seen below.

“How’s the vacation? Is it the tropical paradise you were wishing for?” Abby asked as Tony picked up the phone.

“Yeah, it’s a tropical paradise, really, just like The Blue Lagoon, except no white sand beaches, magical waterfalls, and definitely no Brooke Shields.” 

”That bad?”

“It would be less boring if I was trapped in a jail cell.”

“Come on, it can’t be that bad.”

“It’s worse.”

”You can always come back.”

“No. I can’t give my father the satisfaction.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.”

“Maybe you can try to figure out what animal each of them would be?”

“That could only be an improvement on the situation.”

“Any hot girls or guys?” Abby teased.

Tony snorted. “I wish.” He stared at the probably ten to fifteen older men and women that were his father’s business partners and wished he was anywhere, but here.

He talked with Abby some more before one of her babies started beeping and she had to let him go. Tony wanted to be flippant about this gathering, but with everything that was going on, he just couldn’t be. Senior had made some pretty bad decisions before, but nothing like this.

He wasn’t lying to Abby; it was extremely boring. If it wasn’t for his father, he could actually be enjoying the beach. There was a nice one right outside the hotel, but instead he was stuck inside listening to his father’s business associates and trying to figure out how to get him out of the pickle he’d gotten himself into.

It was one of those things where because he was family, Tony was willing to do it, but that didn’t make it any less boring. One of these people were taking everything that Senior was doing and sharing it with a mob boss who then did it better than Senior. It was making the mob very rich and Senior very poor, but Senior couldn’t just confront the mob boss because that would result in his head on a silver platter.

It was definitely a pickle. No one stood out to Tony as being in the mob, so he couldn’t figure out what was really going on here. He was beginning to think Senior was actually stealing information from the mob boss, which would be even more stupid than Tony had thought Senior was.

He wasn’t about to be played by his father, so he would consider all angles, but all he really wanted to do was return to NCIS. That’s when Tony noticed somebody trying to sneak out of the gathering. He wouldn’t have noticed them except they were sneaking instead of walking. 

Tony followed them and was surprised to discover that this little mouse of a girl was actually the one sharing stuff with the mob boss. She was being rewarded generously too. At least, his father hadn’t been lying to him, this time.

That still didn’t leave Tony any closer to figuring out what to do about the situation. He could tell his father who the spy was, but the mob boss would just send in someone else. This was a sticky situation.

He’d love to put the mob boss behind bars, but he doubted that would happen as he didn’t exactly have any evidence of a crime. He was tempted to tell his father to take his business operation elsewhere, but he had a feeling that wouldn’t fly either. It was such a conundrum. 

Tony would wash his hands of the entire thing except that if his father didn’t figure out how to increase his cash flow, he would end up dead. He’d apparently started this business venture through a couple of loan sharks that he knew and they were now out for blood since they hadn’t seen any of the returns that Senior had promised.

His relationship with Senior might be strained, but he didn’t want his father dead. There had to be a workable solution to this. He’d have just fronted Senior the money for the loan sharks, but even he didn’t have enough to pay the exorbitant amount Senior had borrowed. 

Maybe there was a way they could pit the loan sharks against the mob boss. Tony felt like he’d finally reached the solution. Now, he just had to figure out how to actually do that. 

It wouldn’t be easy by any stretch of the imagination, especially since most of Senior’s business partners were on the wimpy side. Very few of them would actually be willing to stick their necks out for Senior. Still Tony was positive that it could be done. 

He brought the suggestion to Senior who lit up in excitement at the idea. “Yes, I think that’s possible. The loan sharks while not technically part of the mob definitely have ties to the mob boss. I think if we can make them think that the mob boss is generating money off of them and not sharing it with them that we can pit them against each other.”

Tony nodded. That seemed like a workable plan. He shook his head as Senior immediately rushed off to his business associates to share the good news or setup the plan, he wasn’t sure which. 

Tony would stick around to make sure the plan went through and Senior was no longer in danger of losing his life before heading back to DC. He really hoped this worked. He couldn’t wait to go home.

Surprisingly enough Senior’s plan didn’t end up being a complete disaster. He didn’t make any money off of it, but at least the loan sharks had absolved his debt and his life was no longer in danger. The fact that Tony had almost gotten shot didn’t even register as a problem to Senior.

Tony knew there was no point in trying to explain why Senior should be concerned about his son’s life, so Tony boarded the plane and went home. He was happy to put this entire chapter behind him. He just hoped that Senior learned from this mess and would be more careful in the future, though he probably wasn’t that lucky.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has 6 stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least 6 stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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